MALDEN STANDARD & BURNHAM

   U.K. May 12 2005

IT is not often that the concert halls of Essex can claim o any performance " you heard it here first".

But when the universally acknowledged finest slide guitarist in the world began his fist UK tour at the Civic Theatre in Chelmsford recently, for once the boast was true.

Debashish Bhattacharya is one of the world's most remarkable musicians, combining the evocative sounds of Indian raga with the slick and soulful sounds of western jazz and blues on a range of guitars seldom seen outside the sub-continent.

As he explains, slide guitar was taken to India from Hawaii about 70 years ago. It chimed with the local musical tradition and a whole new art form was developed in Calcutta slide-Guitar.

Debashish began playing Hawaii lap steel guitar at the age of three and gave his first major concert on All India Radio when he was four.

All he guitars heard are unique instruments designed by Debashish - the Chaturangui, the Gandharvi and the Anandi - all accompanied by his brother Subhasis on tabla.

These slides represent three generations of instruments and a 1,000 years tradition f India music performed in a hypnotic and stunning style which drew resounding appreciation from a bumper Anglo-India audience.